


The Mysterious Pen Pal

by Animeley



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Kinda off, Not super romantic, Notes, One Shot, Self-Insert, could be a two shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-23 12:52:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16619342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Animeley/pseuds/Animeley
Summary: Prompt: Imagine sharing a high school textbook and leaving each other notes in the margins AU





	The Mysterious Pen Pal

“Alright class, take out a textbook and start the assignment, it’s due at the end of the hour.”

You groaned as you reached down to take out the textbook stored in the wire basket under your desk. The book had seen much better days and the entire front cover was torn off. You had forgotten your nice, clean, undamaged book at home so this old crappy copy would have to do. As you began to thumb through the pages you noticed someone had taken the time to write notes in between the text. It was mostly sarcastic comments and funny quips. You laughed at a certain joke about the ancient Greeks. You continued to flip through the book until you found your page and began your worksheet.

As you worked on classwork, you began to respond the comments. You spent a whole five minutes trying to formulate the perfect response to a certain comment about Medieval Europe. You had to stifle laughter as the teacher walked around the classroom. You noticed the notes stopped in the middle of the chapter and so you took the liberty to keep up student’s legacy. You finished your classwork just as the bell rang. You knew it wouldn’t have taken so long if you hadn’t been distracted, but nevertheless, you left the room with a smile plastered on your face. As you continued through your day, that smile never left. Needless to say, you were hopelessly distracted in the rest of your classes. As you sat in chemistry, you struggled to listen to what the teacher was saying. You heard the teacher mumble something about 250ml of sodium and then proceeded to tune out the rest of the instructions. You were only brought back to reality when your lab partner tapped your shoulder.

“Are you listening?”

You broke out of your trance to turn towards your partner. He gave you a bit of an annoyed look, but you brushed it off.

“Sorry, I just can’t seem to focus, what did she say?” you asked him. He seemed a bit displeased but proceeded to repeat the teacher’s instructions. You felt bad but he seemed to forgive easily. Actually, he seemed really nice. I was fun watching the boy light up at when he explained the experiment in extreme detail.

You managed to get through the period without zoning out again. When the last bell of the day rang, you packed up your stuff and headed to your locker. As you were putting your books up, your friend came up to you.

“You look loopy, feeling okay?” she joked as she put her hand on your forehead.

“Ha ha ha,” you deadpanned,” I’m fine. I found out someone wrote in one of our world history textbooks. Whoever the kid is, they are hilarious, I haven’t been able to stop laughing all day.”

“I hope you keep up with the good attitude, cause’ I know for a fact that we both have at least five hours of homework to do.”

You laughed and walked out of school and towards the subway station.

* * *

 

The next day, you were once again assigned an in-class assignment. This time, however, you purposely forgot your textbook. You reached down to grab the used book and once again flipped to your chapter. You were surprised to see that the jokes continued and the student even responded to some of your comments. You had assumed it was a student from previous years, but it was not. You giggled at the little notes left. You made it your personal mission to find out who was leaving those notes and tell them in person that they are simultaneously the funniest and cringiest person you have ever heard, or, well, read. As you continued along with your worksheet and addition of comment and jokes, the class period flew by. About two minutes before the bell was to ring, the teacher made an announcement.

“Students, if you aren’t finished with the work then take it home to finish; if you need to take home one of the class textbooks, make sure to get it back tomorrow.”

You packed up your work and placed the textbook in your book sack carefully. You hoped to spend a good hour or so getting ahead of the person leaving jokes in the book. As the bell rung, you rushed out of the door and on to your other classes.

You were sitting in the lunchroom trying to come up with words that rhyme with “plague” when your friend nudged your shoulder.

You look at her quizzically, “yes?”

“Remember that cool YouTube video we were talking about yesterday? There’s another one,” she said as she handed you her phone. You watched the masked vigilante of Queens swing around the city until lunch was over and you made your way to your last classes. Chemistry at the end of the day was both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, you liked the class enough for it to keep you awake, but on the other, you absolutely sucked at chemistry. To make matters better/worse your lab partner was practically a genius in the subject. You didn’t know if you enjoyed having him explain material you didn’t understand or hated the fact that he had to repeat himself multiple times because of how advanced he was. You chose to be optimistic and try your best, but most times you kept quiet. When you got into class, you took your lab notebook out to write any additional notes and a conclusion.

“What did you get for the second round?” you asked your partner, trying to make sure your data was accurate.

“50ml, is that what you had?” he answered.

“Yeah, I'm just checking to make sure everything is correct.”

“Do you want to look at my notebook?”

“Actually, yes, that’d be wonderful.”

You took his notebook and begin looking over both sets of data. As you checked, you thought you recognized the handwriting, but you weren’t a professional analyzer or anything.

“Thanks,” you said as you handed he the notebook back.

The rest of the class went along just like that: little conversation between the two of you, just making sure you both received a good grade on the assignment. When school finally let out for the day, you skipped going to your locker in favor of going straight home. You knew it was a bit dorky to be so wrapped up in making history puns, but you couldn’t help but be excited. Once you got to your apartment, you flopped on the bed and began to work. It was only when the sun began to set did you finish most of your homework. Looking out the window, you decided to work outside and watch the sunset. Bringing a pillow, your worksheet, your textbook and a pencil, you climbed out the window and sat on the fire escape. You finished your worksheet quickly and went to work writing jokes and comments on the last of your current chapter. You furrowed your face in concentration. You were so concentrated that you failed to notice a certain red and blue figure land on the railing of your fire escape.

“Whatcha working on?” he asked, breaking your trance. Calm as he was, you nearly screamed, grabbing your chest and widening your eyes to the size of saucers.

“What the hell? Do you always sneak up on people like this?” your voice was an angry whisper-scream, the fright haven seemingly taken your voice.

The vigilante had the nerve to laugh a bit before answering you, “No, but I did think you had seen me before I came up.”

“Ah yes, that was the reaction of a perfectly calm person when someone definitely does not come out of nowhere and is definitely not a masked vigilante,” you said as you rolled your eyes.

“Well, ma’am let me formally apologize for my rude interruption of -?” he gestured at your textbook, letting you fill in the blanks.

“Interruption of me minding my own business, strange spider-boy.”

You could nearly see the boy roll his eyes under the mask.

“Fine, I will leave you be,” the vigilante said, raising his hands up in defense.

You contemplated your options before saying anything.

“Don’t judge me,” the masked figure cocked his head, “but I found a history textbook with hilarious comments in it and I’ve been responding some of them.”

You saw the large white eyes of his mask widen, but continued.

“I took the book home to try and get ahead of whoever else is writing in the book, but I’m completely stumped.”

“Would like some help?”

“I don’t know how well you know medieval history, but sure, why not?”

The vigilante took a seat next to you and began to scan the chapter.

“First off, there are at least a hundred words that rhyme with plague, “he started. You gave him a look of annoyance and he promptly ignored it. “Secondly, if you’re trying to create a haiku, they don’t rhyme.”

“Alright Einstein, what do you suggest?”

The two of you spent nearly two hours laughing at each other and what the other had to say. When the masked superhero did leave, you waved goodbye and held the book close to your chest. You then crawled back into your apartment through the window and got ready to go to bed. 

* * *

 

Two days after taking the textbook home, your mysterious pen pal was again leaving comments on your jokes. You could swear his handwriting was familiar, but you couldn’t tell why. That day, you left your history class once again with a smile on your face. You were so distracted with the textbook that you forgot your sweater sitting on the back of the chair. During your next hour, you had free time and therefore asked your teacher to get the sweater back. When you got to your history class, you knocked lightly on the door before entering and looking for the teacher. You saw her current class doing the same worksheet you did last hour and was glad no one seemed to notice your entrance.

“Yes, Ms. (Y/N)?” your teacher asked, not moving from the chair at her desk.

“I think I left my sweater in here last hour.”

“Ah, yes,” the teacher scanned the room until her eyes landed on your desk, “Peter, can you hand Ms. (Y/N) her sweater?”

You looked to where your desk was and saw your lab partner sitting in it furiously scribbling in his beaten-up textbook without a front cover. When he heard his name being called, he looked up and finally noticed you in the classroom. He reached around behind him and pulled the piece of clothing from the chair. He stood up and you walked across the classroom to get the sweater. As you got close, you strained your eyes to try and see what he was writing in your textbook. You could have sworn he was your pen pal, but you weren’t sure. You needed more proof. You got your sweater, thanked Peter and the teacher and returned to class. The rest of the day went by in a blur until chemistry. You sat down and turned to your partner.

“Hey Peter, can I look at your notes? I think I missed something.”

He fumbled a bit to get his notebook out, but nevertheless, handed it to you with some mumbled answer. The second you opened the notebook, you knew he was your pen pal.

“It’s you?” you asked him.

“What do you know?” he asked quickly, words merging together.  

“Are you the kid who keeps writing the hilarious comments in the world history textbook?”

Peter seemed to let out a breath he was holding as he registered the question.

“Oh, haha, yeah,” he answered while raising a hand to rub the back of his neck. “I’m guessing you’re the person who keep responding with also hilarious commentary?”

“(Y/N) (Y/L/N), at your service,” you said while extending your hand.

He took your hand in a firm grasp and said, “Peter Parker, pleasure to be doing business with you.”

You laughed a bit at his continuation of your joke.

“Well, Mr. Parker, I think maybe we should continue this sharing of jokes, but instead verbally, maybe over coffee?” You watched his grin grow to reach his eyes and light them up.

“I would be honored.”


End file.
